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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Deafula #4

So right now I'm in the process of looking for a job. Or rather "looking" for a job, because I'm not being that proactive. I don't really like working that much, or at least working for money. If given the option I'd rather spend my time volunteering for lots of different things and working on a million of my own projects than spending forty hours a week doing whatever so that I can pay rent and stuff.

But as much as I dislike the whole "looking for a job" thing, it clearly could be so much worse as I'm not deaf like the author this zine. Not that they let being deaf stop them from working, despite what many think about deaf people and disability payments.

The zine begins with a discussion of the different types of disability payments available in the USA, why deaf people are often not allowed to apply for these, and how hard it can be to receive these payments even if you do qualify. This seems really lame! I know from from some friends how hard it can be for the government to believe you actually deserve these payments, and our society seems to delight in exposing people who are "benefit frauds" and ignoring the vast majority of people who actually deserve the help.

The zine discusses the "reasonable accommodation" that employers must provide to disabled employees, different ways various employees and coworkers have either discriminated against or helped the author at different jobs, and the question of when the best time to reveal your disability to potential employers is.

I liked this zine because while it tackles a fairly simple and common subject, it came at it from a point of view I'm not really familiar with and was written in an enjoyable style. There were times where I wasn't sure what specific terms, like TTY, actually meant, and I was a bit puzzled by the way the text switches between computer generated, written on a typewriter, and handwritten (sometimes in the same sentence!). But despite these minor problems I'm interested in reading more issues of this zine and learning more about the experiences of people with hearing loss in general an the author specifically.

(And that's more posts this month than in the first three months of the year, hurray! Let's hope I continue this time.)

I only include website, email, and PO Box addresses. I'm not comfortable printing what could be people's home addresses on the internet. If you want your address included with the review of your zine let me know.